Compound Curved Glass – Engineering, Fabrication, Installation
Project: Condé Nast Headquarters Cafetaria
Architect: Frank Gehry + Partners
Frank Gehry had a vision of an interior world of sinuous titanium and glass for the Condé Nast Cafeteria at the Four Times Square in New York City. The cornerstone of the design was a series of compound curved glass curtains hanging in space – something never done before in architecture.
“I was thinking of a landscape,” says Frank Gehry. “The lines of the glass edges look like reeds swaying in the breeze.”
The private dining rooms of the cafeteria appear to be surrounded by billowing white curtains.
Technology, Design Expertise
The Ctek team developed a new, innovative process to turn Gehry’s vision into reality. The compound curved panels required complex curved laminated glass elements, each about 14 feet high, 5 feet wide, and weighing 800 pounds, with holes drilled in precise locations to suspend the glass with point supports. Eighty uniquely shaped, complex-shaped panels fill the space; when fit together, they create the effect of glass curtains hanging in space, or “swaying in the breeze.” The project required the invention of new technology for glass bending and lamination. It was an unprecedented use of CAD/CAM technology in architecture, combined with multiple CTC innovations, that ultimately led to the creation of these glass sculptures.